The N.Y. Times and one of its writers, Walter Duranty, won Pulitzers in the early 1930s, for FAKE NEWS!
This stuff goes waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back!
DISCLAIMER : I was NOT alive, nor even the vaguest twinkle in my father's eye, who was all of 14 at the time. But I DO know a lot of factual history, which I am always more than happy to share. :-)
I believed for a long time that back in the day, fake news was kind of rare-certainly not as widespread as now.
Institutional, industrial strength lying just doesn’t occur to me, so it’s hard to believe it is so common sometimes.